Thursday, December 07, 2017

Surat: The wait for an international airport by highflying Surtis is going to get longer with the state government writing to the Director General of Police (DGP), Gujarat state, to allot 68 immigration staff members for Surat airport in the financial year 2018-19.
'We Work For A Working Airport at Surat' (WWWAS) has accessed the copy of the letter written by the home department of Gujarat government on September 20, 2017, asking the DGP to allot 68 immigration staff for Surat airport in the financial year 2018-19. This means that the allotment of the immigration staff will only take place sometime in April 2018.
In the letter accessed by WWWAS through right to information (RTI), the state government has stated that the central government will bear all the expenses of the immigration staff to be deployed at Surat airport.
Sources said the immigration staff will be appointed in April 2018 and will have to compulsorily attend immigration training for about a month. This means Surat airport will get the immigration staff only in May or June, 2018. Going by this, Surat can only have international airport facilities after June 2018.
07/12/17 Times of India